Not quite sure where to post this since there is no "Open forum" board, but I have a question on curriencies specifically. While in Iraq, I bought some of the new currency and now have this hard curreny sitting around. My question is does anyone know of a bank or broker that is willing to take the currency so I can change it into a more "liquid" investment making it much easier espically if they change denominations of the currency, or they split the country again or whatever unforseen thing happens. Thanks, and if anyone has any suggestions on where else to post this please let me know.

Tough question. I assume that you're now in the United States. Most banks do not deal in currency trading here, and for the ones that do the currencies they'll take are quite limited.

I've often thought that a really good small online business would be an eBay or Craigslist type forum where you could match people with petty cash from a country with someone who needs petty cash before traveling. Alas, I don't have time for it, and no one else has done it.

It would work very similarly to freecycle.org.

The best place I could refer you to would be the American Currency Exchange in Detroit.

You're going to get hit pretty hard in fees and spread on the transaction. If you know folks who are going to Iraq, you might also consider private transactions with 'em so they have some cash going in.

Thanks for the reply, and this is what I was afraid of. I really bought the currency more for investment purposes, so I don't want to exchange for cash. I wanted someplace to establish a liquid value to take in account all the changes that will happen over the next 20 years or longer, to make it easier to sell or exchange when I want to. I guess I will have to wait 5-10 years until it becomes more accepted and I can open an account with it (if this happens). I will continue to look for overseas places that will let me open an account, but that is going to be hard to do also. Places such as OANDA will trade it however, I can not establish an account with it. Thanks again, and it is pretty cool that I got a reply from Bill Mann.

Sam,I'm pretty sure I have exchanged foreign for US currency at a local American Express office. I'm sure it's tourist and not investment rates. I believe they took paper currency but not coins. If you decide something is better than nothing, give them a call.Linda